FLCL. Just your average Slice Of Life.

Hmm... so nobody's commented about the ending yet? Strange, figured everyone would've given their two cents already since I'm a day behind and all.

This is easily the most ambiguous of the FLCL endings yet. One could easily say that Medical Mechanica finally got their wish of flattening the Earth, because that's certainly what seemed to have happened even despite Kanna's N.O. outburst. Yet... the credits sequence seems to show a town where nothing has happened, the giant irons and red map pins are missing, and Pets is somehow back on Earth. But then at the very last moment, they show a giant red sphere in the sky. So did they shift into a different dimension where Kanna would have her fantasy world of never moving past high school, or what? [[/spoiler

Still processing how I felt but I have to give the writers props to actually sticking to their guns and not bringing Pets back for the finale.

As boring as it sounds, the impression I got from the ending is that Kana was able to save the Earth and everything returned to normality. Only this time, she's not so obsessed with trying to maintain the status quo of her life.

Pets is back on earth?? When did they confirm that??

This ending is a tad confusing, much like the ending of Progressive. Yes, Kana's arc was crystal clear and she achieved it, her narration even made it clear. But all the details were not. The writers PULLED OFF HAVING MEDICAL MECHANICA ACTUALLY ACHIEVE IRONING OUT THE WORLD this time, which was gutsy. The pins are gone, and a domesticated and populated Mars being closer to Earth indicates travel back and forth from there is now routine, which is a HUGE change! But what was Haruko's goal? Is she still after Atomsk? Did she achieve it? Would Japan have to get a new prime minister?? What was with Kanda?? How does he know Haruko and what was his past? It seems a ton of questions introduced in the summary released a year before Progressive's release were never answered.

Edited by kyun on Oct 14th 2018 at 9:25:44 AM

Could've sworn the girls clique had Pets walking alongside them again in the end credits. That's whats making me wonder if that was a flashback or some sort of instrumentality-style alternate world. Plus... the realist in me wants to point out just how horrible having Mars in such close proximity to Earth would be. The moon, despite being only a fraction of Earth's size and so far away, has significant influence on the tide and various natural processes in our ecosystem. That giant red sphere was DAMN close, close enough that you could probably see the colony lights on Mars on a dark night. That's guaranteed to cause some major disasters and permanent environmental changes.

Kana was wearing Pets hair clip at the end, so I don't think it's a flashback/reset or that Pets came back.

Yeah, i liked Pats wasn't around in the final episode and Kana couldn't reconcile and give her a proper goodbye.

It happens, you know?

By the way, the part I disagree with what Pets said in her rant in episode five is the part about Sasaki. I thought it was rather mature of Kana to realize she wasn't ready for a relationship yet.

Edited by Cortez on Oct 14th 2018 at 2:05:58 PM

I just assumed that everyone got sucked into another dimension.

I mean, this show is weird at times.

I'm just going to say it was an alternate dimension/timeline from the other two series and call it a day.

I got the impression that Kana created a second Earth that everyone is now on, and the blue, smooth planet in the sky at the end is Earth 1 after the irons were done with it.

Sounds the most reasonable conclusion. Would also explain why Mars is now so close to Earth, yet neither planet is suffering any major side effects from their proximity to each other.

The guy called it something else, but that was 100% a black hole. Idon't care what other term he used.

First episode of Alternative.

-deep breath-

The f-ck. Okay, so Haruko just waltzes into the scene this time, we know her MO she even spells it out this time, cute. So the K-On group (that's what I'm calling them until I learn their names) and Team Leader Uraraka (because don't tell me that's not who you were thinking of) are actually content with their lives, and seem to be relatively normal except for their whole let's build shit mentality. Come on really, women building rockets and showing interest in engineering? Like that ever happens. Ever. Ok so Haruko shows up shortly after the K-On group gets a weird, shared Brain Blast and decide to build their rockets, and this time we see Haruko kick things off directly instead of the split narrative between her and Jin-yu. So does this take place before Progressive since Jin-yu doesn't seem to be here to stop Haruko, and since Haruko is still a pinkette here?

I'm told that Alternative feels more like a definite sequel where Progressive felt more like a fanfic. I'm not sure I agree, but I can't disagree either. I like Uraraka and Team K-On more than Hidomi and Ide, admittedly. But I don't know what to make of this first episode either it's kind of like blang and then blong and bling and here's the opening credits right in the middle of the episode and a bunch of possible related clips from later in the show. Ok, so now we have more blatant sexual metaphors like Uraraka growing a giant pink flower on her head instead of a horn. And from out of it a giant... spider monstrosity flies out.

Ah, Fooly Cooly, the show where a naughty space cops shows up, molests teenagers to make them grow space-distoring objects on their foreheads, which said space cop then uses to summon guitars to fight giant alien monsters with.

That. That is this show.

So I thought the whole point of Fooly Cooly was that Haruko targets depressed kids and hopeless kids? Team K-On doesn't seem like that mmmhmm.

Also, weird that Progressive was so Censor-Censor on everything but we got a Panty Shot in this episode and then Team K-On is even taking upskirt shots of each other. I'm not the only one that finds that weird.

How in the OVA would you get the impression that she ONLY targets depressed kids? For years the only kids we seen her try to target were a total of ONE.

You can't see through black holes. Also black holes aren't shaped like that. Also black holes aren't literally holes.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Oct 15th 2018 at 4:04:53 AM

(4) She's targeted four - Naota (everything is boring here), Hidomi (my headphones are my lifeline), Ide (I'll be honest he's the exception and I'm still not convinced that everything in Progressive wasn't a coke-addled fever dream, but I assume his not living in an ordinary house and working like a dog didn't make for a happy life), and now Uraraka (who, as I note, doesn't seem unhappy) - and possibly five if we count Amarao.

Also Haruko outright asks Uraraka if she's some depressed kid slouching through life or whatever. It sounds like she was winking at the audience and explaining her MO, which we've seen play out in both FLCL and Progressive. Plus there's Jin-yu trying to Homura Akemi the situation in Progressive by warning Hidomi to stay away from Haruko, implying that she knew Haruko would go after her ... even though Haruko initially didn't...

furi...kuri...furi... kuri...

Edited by Soble on Oct 15th 2018 at 1:10:51 AM

So many Ide and Kana are the exceptions, which implies Haruko DOESN'T target only depressed kids.

But Ide was a dud, and so far Kana has manifested a single decent guitar and a monster.

• Naota < depressed < summons several monsters, and even manages to attract the attention of the Pirate King and harness his power
• Amarao < adult stuck in the past < produces a tiny slingshot that takes everything out of him
• Hidomi < depressed < is part-freaking robot and nearly kills Haruko in a fight < somehow manifests Atomsk
• Ide < seems happy go lucky at first until we learn more about him < summons a giant monster < loses Haruko's attention a
• Kana < has friends and seems content in her life < summons a monster and an awesome guitar

The odds weigh in favor of depression and hopelessness.

Edited by Soble on Oct 15th 2018 at 2:27:22 AM

Being a dud has nothing to do with who she targets.

Ide acted more messed up than he actually was. He could have just given her a false flag for potential.

Or she could just throw a wide net. She hit Naota's dad, too, afterall.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Oct 15th 2018 at 6:05:09 AM

And Ninamori.

Perhaps I'm misspeaking. What I mean is that all of those people - Ide, Kamon, Ninamori - were all duds. The only people thus far that Haruko has successfully pulled the objectives of her apparent mission are depressed people. Those three I mentioned? They weren't the main character.

The main characters so far have each been able to produce Atomsk, and depression seems to be a theme with them. And it's odd to me that Kana, who Raharu will more than likely be using to reach Atomsk again, isn't visibly depressed like the last two main characters were.

She can pull robots out of almost anybody. She's only fixated on/pulled Atomsk out of depressed kids.

I can't really defend that perception beyond that, so I'll just trust that it's not actually the case and that the second episode is probably going to surprise me even more.

Edited by Soble on Oct 15th 2018 at 7:04:04 AM

I thought it was pretty clear Kana somehow warped Mars to be next to Earth so she could be near Pets.

I just started googling other peoples' reactions to Progressive. Hoooo boy. I thought I was stammered, but at least I liked the thing. So after wading through verbose variations of, "it's themes are sh-t" and creative repetitions of, "it's not as good as the original," I finally found someone who actually likes Progressive and disliked the original.

So can we just say that was some End of Eva shit?

Sooo.... to sum up, it's unanimously agreed that Progressive and Alternative are not as good as the OVA, but there is debate on which of the two is better than the other.